Since its launch in June 2020, the data available on UNHCR’s Refugee Data Finder site has been explored by users several million times. The site serves comprehensive, reliable and up-to-date data - spanning over 70 years - on the world’s forcibly displaced and stateless populations. It provides a wealth of information for people working in the humanitarian and development sectors as well as researchers, journalists, and many other users. When using any data, understanding its provenance and how it has been produced is essential. Data on forcibly displaced and stateless people is collected in some of the most challenging circumstances, therefore it is critical to review the accompanying metadata to avoid inadvertent mistakes when analyzing and interpreting the data.

Here are five common mistakes when using the statistics in the Refugee Data Finder, along with an explanation of how to mitigate or avoid them.

The Refugee Data Finder contains both stock and flow data. Stock figures record the number of people at a particular point in time, typically the middle or end of the year. For example, the number of refugees published in the site relate to those that were refugees at the end of each year.

Flow figures measure the number of people during a period of time, and in the statistics on the Refugee Data Finder the time period is typically six months or a full year. Examples of flow figures are the number of asylum applications and decisions as well refugees and internally displaced people that have found a durable solution. Here is a summary of the datasets in the Refugee Data Finder that are stocks or flows:

Using flow data to calculate stock data and vice versa is likely to lead to incorrect figures. Some examples of common mistakes and how to avoid them are given below.

These population groups are often combined into broader categories, such as forcibly displaced people or people that UNHCR protects and/or assists. When referring to these broader categories, it is essential to understand clearly which populations are included in each, and which data sources are used to calculate them, to avoid misinterpretation or false conclusions.

See UNHCR's population categorizations explained for more information.

Another common mistake is to assume that all the statistics have the same unit of measurement. For statistics on forced displacement, this is most relevant for asylum applications and decisions. The International Recommendations on Refugee Statistics promote reporting asylum applications and decisions per person and almost all countries now report these statistics at individual level. However, some countries still provide data per case, i.e. for one or more people. When per-case data is reported, a footnote indicates the average number of people per case, which can be used to estimate the number of people. Therefore, when using data on asylum applications and decisions, note the unit of measurement indicated in the “Cases (C)/Persons (P)” column and explore the relevant footnotes.

Some countries report using different units of measurement for different stages of asylum procedures, while for others, reporting by cases or persons has varied between years. For example, in the figure below, the data in 2020 has been reported per case, while data for 2021 has been reported per person. While it appears as though the number of applications has increased between years, when the average case size is applied to the 2020 data (in this example, the average number of people per case is 1.4), a decrease is observed.

UNHCR only recommends applying the average case size by country of asylum, as in the example above. The case size can vary considerably by country of origin, and therefore applying the average case size for specific countries of origin could be misleading.

For more information on the content and structure of the asylum applications and decisions datasets, see the data structure section of the methodology page.

About 30 per cent of the reported number of stateless people worldwide are also displaced. Most of them are Rohingya, either internally displaced in Myanmar or refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries.

Since 2017, UNHCR has reported stateless people who are also displaced within its statelessness statistics. This means that these populations are included as both stateless and within one of the population groups for forced displacement (refugees, asylum-seekers, other people in need of international protection or internally displaced).

When combining statistics on stateless people with forced displacement population groups there is therefore a risk of counting the same people twice. In 2022, around 1.3 million people were both stateless and forcibly displaced. To make the stateless status more accessible in the Refugee Data Finder, an additional filter is being incorporated into the demographic data and will be available for users soon.

UNHCR is committed to the continuous improvement of the quality of the statistics published on the Refugee Data Finder. The production of UNHCR’s official statistics is guided by its Statistical Quality Assurance Framework which will be published in 2024. The framework formally establishes and enables UNHCR’s commitment to quality official statistical outputs by defining the principles for statistical quality, providing a set of quality objectives for each principle, and identifying the actions that are necessary to meet those quality objectives.

The Refugee Data Finder has also been designed with ease-of-use in mind. The site enables data to be selected, filtered and visualized in charts and maps. Statistics can also be exported for further analysis and advanced users can leverage the API to use the data dynamically (see more on how to use the API).

In case you observe a possible issue, have an idea for how the statistics or the site can be improved, or can’t find the specific statistics you’re looking for, please do let us know using the feedback link at the bottom of the home page. We will reply!